Beer History: Who Brewed Ireland's First 'Stout'?

Having previously looked at who brewed the first porter and other beer styles in Ireland - or at least flagging the first mentions of them in newspapers - I thought I should delve into that most quintessential of Irish beers. No not red ale, that is a whole other multipart story, I am talking about stout of course.

I better clarify that I am not talking about the most modern iteration of stout that dates from around the mid twentieth century or later, I am talking about a dark beer that had the word ‘stout’ in its name that was being produced by an Irish brewery.

And yes, I am being a little pedantic about the name itself, as stronger dark beers were possible being produced but not being sold as a ‘stout’ version. We are just looking at the actual word when used in conjunction with something darkly brewed, as it could of course also be use for a paler ale.

As far as I can see the first use of the term was in January of 1779 when the following advertisement for Alderman Warren’s brewery at No. 6 Mill Street in Dublin appears in Saunder’s Newsletter:

They were clearly brewing porter and I think this qualifies as the first dark ‘Stout’, regardless of whether it would be recognisable - or drinkable - by today’s stout aficionados. A John Magee may have been the actual brewer according to later advertisements, and those just mention the production of ‘Irish Porter’. Whether this means it was discontinued or just not being specifically flagged is impossible to say.

A few months later in August 1779 another advertisement appears in Saunder’s Newsletter by a Robert Pettitt who was based off Dame Street in Dublin:

Robert Pettitt had previously sold London Porter and here we can see he was selling a product called ‘Irish Brown Stout Porter’, and it is certainly nice to see that full title in print. No brewery is mentioned but given that I cannot find any other breweries producing a similarly name product, is it safe to assume that this is also from Warren’s brewery? Probably not, but in January of the following year the advertisement was changed to include the following:

'This being the first House opened for Sale of Irish Brown Stout Porter in this City, claims the Protection of the Public, to whom the Proprietor returns his most grateful Thanks, for their Encouragement, which far exceeds his most sanguine Expectations.'

Wonderful wording and it seems to be that this is the first retailer - I am taking 'house' to mean shop or warehouse not public house, which it appears not to have been - to sell and clearly advertise an Irish 'Stout Porter’ for sale.

There are very few mentions of Irish brewed stouts for a good few decades after but a few others stood out...

In April 1808 Messrs. Madder & Co. of Hope Porter Brewery on Watling Street in Dublin ran an advertisement in Saunder’s Newsletter that stated:

'… that the demand for their Brown Stout having exceeded their expectation, their stock of it for immediate use is entirely exhausted…'

(Nice to see a namesake for a modern Irish brewery there, and it appears from other notices that there is a complicated story about the Madders, their fallings out, and the setting up of a rival brewery at Black Pitts by a son - Samuel jr. - but that would need to be a whole different post…)

In 1812 The Belfast Commercial Chronicle carries an advertisement for ‘100 Tierces [of] Brown Stout Porter’ which were received from Cork but sadly no brewery was mentioned, we could possibly guess which brewery but that would hardly be factual...?

In May 1816 and also in The Belfast Commercial Chronicle an advertisement of a dissolution of a partnership between Clotworthy Dobbin and John W. Wright, which states that the business will be carried on by Mr Dobbin and that he is ‘well supplied with Double Brown Stout Porter’ in his brewery in that city Belfast.

It is October 1828 before I finally spot a Guinness product being described by those words in an Irish newspaper, but this might just be the words of the seller - Francie Magee - as he lumps it in with Barclay & Co.’s listed offering, possibly to save space. I doubt this is the first time that Guinness used the word ‘Stout’ but it’s the earliest mention I came across ...

So there we go, a pointless exercise in one way but it is nice, as ever, to pull this information out of the virtual pages of newspapers and drag them into a somewhat more accessible and searchable format.

Liam

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Newspaper images are © The British Library Board - All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from whom I have received permission to display these images on this site.

Beer History: Who Brewed Ireland's First Porter?

"Porter was first brewed in Ireland in 1776 ..." says a well-known online encyclopaedia …

"Porter made its way to Ireland in 1776 ..." says an American Brewery's website …

"It [porter] was first brewed in Ireland in 1776 ..." says yet another online source …

We have been in a similar situation before of course, and these are just three of the quotes you will comes across when you attempt to investigate the history of porter brewing in this country, and I think we are seeing a pattern here with perhaps an unhealthy dose of plagiarism. So with this gnawing into my brain, I decided to do my own bit of research into any factual accounts of Ireland's first porter, having previously investigated who brewed Ireland's first IPA and first lager.

I am not going to dare to enter the argumentative world of porter's general history and beginnings but to add some context timewise we can say that the general consensus is that the name 'porter' has its origins in London in or around 1720 or perhaps earlier and was a name for a brown beer. After that I suggest you dig through the findings and writings of those you have been doing this longer and better than me. Here I just want to focus on its earliest recorded appearance in this country by that name, and to see can we pinpoint and confirm - or reconfirm - a date for when it was first brewed here and who produced it. 

That first mention I can find for porter in this country is in The Gentleman's and London Magazine, where in 1746 the Dublin Society (who we came across in a previous post) were giving a premium or reward for:

'... the best Ale at 3d per Quart (not less than 20 Barrels) brewed by any common Brewer before April 1747 [and] for the best 2d Ale or Porter (not less than 30 Barrels) ...'

This may mean that porter must have been relatively well known by this stage in Ireland and was - perhaps - already being brewed here. [Edit: It was in at least 1740 - see Martyn Cornell's post here.] We also might infer that porter was being classed, by the Dublin Society at least, as a weaker beer compared to the 'best' ale, but as to how weak or strong these beers were I do not know for sure. It is worth noting that the Dublin Society may have offered this premium in previous years too, but I have not come across the reference yet so this is the earliest reference I can find. So, nothing definitive as such in this mention but it is certainly interesting, and it is nice to see in print - but in truth we can surely believe that porter was being imported into this country well before this point?

The earliest newspaper advertisement I have come across for 'London Porter' is from Pue's Occurrences on the 25th of April 1749 when it was for sale in Dublin, as we can see here:

Even though - again - we can assume that porter was a relatively well-known commodity in Ireland, and certainly Dublin and other sea-trading cities on the island, by this time, it is good to see a mention like this in print. The big issue to keep in mind is of course that this is clearly not its first appearance but, these are just the first mentions I can find - for now. I personally believe that given the amount of trade between Ireland and England it would have made its way to this country not long after its 'invention', just as its precursors probably also did - but I have no proof yet.

But what is certainly more interesting is this advertisement from the Dublin Courier from early August 1762:

This is not terribly clear text so here it is transcribed:

'We have the pleasure to inform the public, that Thwaits's [sic] Irish Porter (now brought to perfection) is upon draft at several houses, particularly at Malones, on the Upper Combe, a few doors above Meath-Street.'

The 'now brought to perfection' would lead us to believe that this was not there first attempt at brewing a porter. So, although I have seen a few books and articles suggesting 1763 as the first brewing of porter in this country we can see here that it was certainly 1762 - if not in all probability a little earlier. [Edit: Again see Martyn's post linked above.] I suspect most of the sources that quote 1763 are referencing Lynch & Viazey's Guinness's Brewery in the Irish Economy, where they report that Thwaites told The Irish house of Commons in that year that they had finally perfected the brewing of porter as the pushed for the introduction of restrictions on the imports of English porter. As to how many years it took them to perfect it, we might never know precisely. Equally as important to many pub historians is that this advertisement also flags one of the places where draught Irish porter was supped for the first time - in an establishment called Malone's on The Coome near Meath Street, not far from Thwaites' brewery at Cork Bridge, at or near the junction of Cork Street and Ardee Street. (It is also nice to point out in the above advertisement the spelling of draught beer as 'draft', proving that this is another word that is not an Americanism but rather a forgotten Englishism, or perhaps Irishism.)

So, we can definitely push the first brewing of an Irish porter back a year from the few earliest mentions I have found, and reconfirmed the name to the brewer. As for all those sources online? Well, we have taken those back thirty years for porter's first appearance here and thirteen for when it was first brewed.

I have no doubt that we could push both of those dates back a little more if we knew where to look ...

[Edit: And now we do, although Thwaites does appear to be the first named brewery we come across...]

Liam

All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its source, and a link back to this post. References to quoted newspapers are available via email or DM to me.

Newspaper images are © The British Library Board - All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from whom I have received permission to display these images on this site.

Beer History: An Irish Brewed 'American IPA' in 1882

As I (too) often point out, the standard beer styles we think of as 'new' to Irish brewing are rarely so. IPAs, Milds, Imperial Stouts and Amber ales have all already done their journey through the breweries of Ireland and into the hands and mouths of its beer drinkers, and although many would contend that using American hops in beers in this country is a new phenomena it is something that has been done for a couple of centuries at least.

Take the above advert from May 1882 from the Clonmel Chronicle showing where Keily's in Waterford were using Californian hops in an IPA in the late 19th century - with Perry's malt as you can see  - so 'American IPAs' are certainly not a new thing in this country, it was more of a case that we had forgotten that we brewed with them. Okay, style-wise Keily's IPA is hardly going to be 'West Coast' or 'East Coast' or whatever but is there still a fair justification for calling this an American IPA as it used Californian hops?

Yes, perhaps I am stretching style terminology a little, but even still it is certainly nice to see the early use of American hops in print - and in a beer - and it might help burst another brewing myth in our beer history.

The availability of American hops is not a new or unusual phenomenon here, the aforementioned Perry's of Rathdowney were using them in the early part of the 20th century - as well as Californian malt I might add - and certainly the bigger breweries were using them too. Indeed back as far as 1795 American hops were being sold via Irish newspapers and touted as being 'remarkable [sic] strong', presumably compared to English hops. The very early years of the 19th century show up more American hops for sale and in 1818 a Dublin newspaper carried an advertisement stating that a batch of hops being offered were 'nearly one half stronger than British or Flemish [hops], and free from any unpleasant flavor[sic]', which would lead us to believe that even back then American hops were noted for their stronger aroma.

So next time someone asks who brewed Ireland's first American IPA you will be able to start a long and unwinnable argument by quoting this advertisement ...

Good luck!

Liam

(I've posted about Keily's previously here.)

All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its source, and a link back to this post. References to quoted newspapers are available via email or DM to me.

Newspaper image is © The British Library Board - All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from whom I have received permission to display this image on this site .